Rate this:

Please mark your calendars for 15 April for >> 7:00 pm << at the PA Library. We changed the time due to a conflict with an earlier event.

The plan is to have a conversation about a possible community garden location on the West side of Port Angeles. We’d also like to give you all a test-run of a presentation we’ve been working on.

After this, we’d like to break up into two groups, one for people interested in the garden, and the other to critique and improve the presentation. Then we’ll come back together for a sharing and review of what the two groups discussed.

–In brief–

When: 15 April, 7:00 pm

Where: PA Library

Hope to see you there!

Rate this:

The Library’s Carver Room is in big demand! We had to schedule a meeting on very short notice.

Please mark your calendars for 1 April (no, really!), 6:30 pm at the Library. We’ve got some ideas to present, and then it’s onto Collapse, a movie which touches upon many of the topics we talked about at the transportation meeting. Thereafter we’ll have a focused discussion/response about the movie.

In brief:

When: 1 April, 6:30pmWhere: The PA LibraryWhat: The movie Collapse, followed by group conversation.

Rate this:

Great news! Transition Port Angeles is the 131st officially recognized Transition Initiative in the United States. This is a sign that Transition US — the national hub tasked with helping US Initiatives — considers Transition PA a viable and healthy movement.

Getting Transition PA officially recognized is one major goal of the Initiating Group, before it dissolves. We on the IG see this as great progress, and we look forward to the rest of the year. Transition PA has come a long way since the first meeting in December of 2011, but there’s still much more to be done.

Although we don’t a date set yet, we fully intend to celebrate Transition PA’s official status in a February public event. Details soon to follow.

Rate this:

We’ve been quiet for awhile, but we haven’t gone anywhere. Expect to see a February event announced soon.

In the meanwhile, we’re focusing on the Transition PA table at the Farmer’s Market. It’s our intention to make that home base for all things Transition! Swing by and say hello when you’re at the Market. We’ve got copies of the four Transition books at the table for everyone to read and enjoy, with more fun stuff planned in the near future.

Rate this:

We’re looking toward January for the rescheduled training event. Details are still being ironed out, but they should be ready soon!

In the meanwhile, here’s some more information from our trainer:

Michelle Colussi is a Manager with the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal. Trained as a teacher, she has worked for over 25 years delivering and facilitating organizational development and strategic planning workshops among small business, NGO boards, First Nations and a variety of citizen stakeholder groups. She has experienced first hand the challenges of resource based communities as they struggle to adapt to change and facilitated a multi-stakeholder forest certification process and group for Western Forest Products for several years. She brings her business sense to the non-profit sector as a social enterprise trainer, coach and community economic development practitioner.

Michelle can share specific experience in community organizing and development in the fields of youth justice, mental health, the arts and community based small business sectors. She was a team lead in the design and delivery of the Community Resilience Manual, which has been used and adapted in several countries, including as the basis of a national Poverty Reduction Strategy in Botswana. She is currently the lead Canadian trainer, and co-ordinator of the Transition (Town) Training Network in Canada, and a founding member of Transition Victoria. Michelle brings a sense of humour, an openness to differences and strong collaboration skills that enable her to work with multi-interest groups at government, corporate and community levels. She lives in Victoria with her husband and son.

Transition training is a bit like a wine tasting: you get to hear about and try (no spitting allowed!) a variety of tools and approaches that will help you think about what might work in your town – and how to start. The workshop starts with an exploration of our outer context in the world today – not repeating what you already know (as the converted) but exploring how we communicate that to others in our communities. By noon you have an overview of all the ingredients of the model and then we break it down and spend some time with each step and key principle. Day Two starts off with a journey into the Inner world of Transition and explores various theories about how we came to be in this situation, and what we can do to “re-connect” with our own beliefs, with nature and each other.